


i still fucking love you

by moonburntmemory



Series: ZKFlashFebruary2021 [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, F/M, Humor (kind of), like a full on bitch fight someone hold their earrings, like lots of cursing, potty mouths all around, some very creative curse words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:55:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29174520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonburntmemory/pseuds/moonburntmemory
Summary: Katara and Zuko always find their way back to each other. Neither can decide whether this is a good or bad thing.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: ZKFlashFebruary2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165919
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36
Collections: Zutara February Flash Fics





	i still fucking love you

**Author's Note:**

> day 26: destructive
> 
> title from "driver's license" by olivia rodrigo

“If you think I could ever stay away from you, you’re more of a sack of stolen sloth shit than I ever imagined!” The venom in Katara’s voice dripped onto the tiled floor between them. She didn’t care.

He threw his hands up with their usual inability to admit defeat. Katara’s life would end along with the world the day he gave up without a fight. “Get some self-control. Don’t you dare blame this on me. I’m not the one that showed up at your house in the middle of the night in the middle of the pouring rain in the middle of a fight!” he ranted, his cheeks flushing scarlet with the blood rushing as quickly as anger.

“Don’t you even try it, you week-old cabbage fucker. Why are you such an asshole? What’s wrong with you?” Katara shouted, letting the rain warmed on her skin fall from her hairline onto her soaked blue dress. 

“Stop making this about me! It’s not about me! Get a grip, Kat! You sound like the crazy soju-obsessed lady at a nursing home everyone steers clear of” Zuko retorted.

“Go stick your dick in a hot dumpling! You’re not blameless, even though you’d like to pretend everything that ever went wrong was my fault!” Katara sneered, bracing a palm against the varnished wood of his door frame that he silently refused to let her past. 

Zuko grimaced, whipping his head to the right. “You think I set out to hurt you from the very beginning? It’s not like it was intentional, Katara! Why can’t you just let it go? Stop holding onto the past like you're pogo-sticking on a broomstick shoved up your ass!” 

“Because every time I close my eyes I see you staring back at me, daring me to come crawling back like an ant begging to be crushed underfoot. Because I can’t get through a day of work without staring out of a window and daydreaming about how things could’ve gone instead of how they did. And it feels like it’s your final revenge, your way to get back at me. Is that what you wanted?” Katara’s voice began to crack under the weight of the accusation.

Zuko gazed down at his shoes. “Do you really think I would do that? You hate me so much that you believe I'd stoop that low? That I would take pleasure in your shitty anguish? That I would ever be petty enough to hate someone that I used to love?” he murmured. 

“I wouldn’t put you above it! Just based on how you’ve been acting, it’s a real possibility! I could write academic essays about your behavior and people would think I'm talking about caffeinated chimpanzees! Even if you don’t get off on making me miserable, you obviously don’t have any reservations about that fuckshit!” Katara shouted, pointing a finger to his face that fell parallel to the tip of his downturned nose.

Zuko slowly shook his head, bringing his hands to pinch the agitated bridge of his nose. “Who the fuck says fuckshit? You’re infuriating! And have you ever even stopped to think about things from my point of view? Maybe you’re not as righteous and untouchable as you think, Katara!”

She narrowed her eyes. “At least mine wasn’t intentional! I’m not as heartless as you!”

“Why can’t you leave me alone? Do you have to keep following me around like a dung beetle with its favorite crapball? Have you ever considered that I don’t wanna be caught in this never-ending cycle of fighting and fucking?” Zuko shot back, golden eyes threatening to set Katara’s ocean irises on fire as well.

Katara huffed, tears falling onto her cheeks alongside rain to create a brackish concoction of turmoil. “Do you think I want this? I want to forget you ever existed and move on with my life more than anything! But I can’t! No matter how hard I try.” 

“Why not? Why can’t we just leave whatever beaten and dead? Because you’re addicted to being hurt by someone heartless?” Zuko questioned with raised eyebrows and anguished hands wringing his shirt. The shadows underneath his angular cheekbones gave his angry face an even sharper look. If Katara had known any better, she would've been scared of the beautiful face in front of her. And what she would let its owner do to her before drawing a line in the windblown sand. 

The words flowed out from her mouth like running water down mountainsides unfettered by any obstacle. They ran down their inexorable path with no specific destination. 

“I still fucking love you.”

His mouth fell open as hers closed in an attempt to suppress the free-flowing tears. “I can’t stop, no matter how hard I try. I know we’re bad for each other and self-destructive and it’ll never work, but I don't want to be anywhere other than your arms, ever. I will let myself be destroyed if it means getting to love you.”

Zuko was silent for a moment before letting out a huff. The welling waves of rage directed towards him dissipated as soon as he clasped his fingers around her chin and lifted her face to his gaze. “Everyone always says that the brightest burning flames are the ones that go out the fastest. I used to think it was downright idiotic to be such a hedonistic moron. And then I met you.”

The embers between them reignited in all of their former glory as Katara leaned into the ferocity and hunger of the kiss. Zuko’s hands roamed over her body, hiking her up onto his hips. Wrapping her legs around his waist and burying her hands in his hair, Katara became oblivious to anything beyond the two of them. As they crossed the threshold marked by a slamming door, both lovers were content to lay in the desolate cold once the fire burned itself out. The irresistible warmth of the moment would hold them over long after only memories remained.


End file.
